Guess+who?

=Guess who?= by Roberto Bonilla

Purpose
The purpose of this activity is to break the ice and get a group of people to feel more comfortable around each each other in a short period of time. It will allow participants to share a little something with fellow participants besides their names.

Time Required
This activity will take approximately 35-45 minutes.

Number of Participants
The minimum number of people required to complete this activity is 5 people. The maximum number of people, strictly because of time constraints, would be 20 people.

Supplies Needed
The facilitator will need butcher paper, at least one marker per participant, tape, index cards, scissors (to cut the paper).

Preparation
Once the facilitator knows how many participants there will be, he/she will need to cut out one 25" x 30" (the size of easel paper) for each participant.

Introduction
Today you will all be participating an an activity to break the ice so you will all feel a little more comfortable around each other the rest of this workshop/training/semester. Besides learning each others names, it will also give you an opportunity to get to know a little more about each others personality.

Process
Step 1: Hand out the materials needed to the participants (25" x 30" butcher paper, marker(s), index cards, long piece of tape. (3-5 minutes) Step 2: Ask each participant to write their name on the top of the poster. (1 minute) Step 3: Ask each participant to list at least five (5) facts about themselves on the poster. Once they are finished, have them go to the front of the room and tape their poster up on the wall. (5 minutes) Step 4: On an index card, write something about yourself that nobody knows about you. When prompted by the facilitator, hand your index card to the facilitator. (1 minute) Step 5: One a a time, the participants will go up to the front of the room to read to everyone what they wrote about themselves. (10-20 minutes, depending on number of participants) Step 6: After all participants have read their posters, the facilitator will now read the cards (what nobody knows) one at a time. As the facilitator reads them, the participants will write the fact on an index card. The facilitator and participants will repeat this step until all unknown facts have been read. (5-10 minutes) Step 7: The participants will now go up to the posters and tape the index card on the persons poster they feel is the owner of the fact. (5 minutes) Step 8: The facilitator will now read through all of the posters to see what the participants thought of each other. At this point, the facilitator will ask the participants to reveal which unknown fact actually goes with what participant. (5 minutes)

Debrief

 * What was the purpose of this activity?
 * What did the activity force you to do?
 * Did any of the facts surprise you based on your first impression of the person?

Credits
I do an activity similar to this every year with my soccer team. Since they already know each other, I only ask them to share something nobody else knows about them and have the team guess. No matter how many times we do this, they are always surprised.